


Remus Lupin and the Kiss at Midnight

by NoctuaLusa



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Male Character, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Firewhiskey (Harry Potter), Friends to Lovers, Gay Male Character, Internalized Homophobia, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Marauders, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss, POV Remus Lupin, POV Third Person, POV Third Person Limited, Pining, Teen Angst, Teenage Drama, Young Sirius Black
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28387188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoctuaLusa/pseuds/NoctuaLusa
Summary: Remus Lupin is completely sure that he will start 1977 with Prongs whining about Lily Evans not wanting to kiss him. He is dead certain that noone would want to kisshim, right?Well, he's wrong. But Sirius Black has a thing or two to learn about consent.*Happy new year! May it be better than this one.*
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44





	Remus Lupin and the Kiss at Midnight

The party was in full swing. Although most of the Gryffindors were at home for the holidays, the remaining students made a great hullabaloo. Remus looked around in the common room. Dorcas, Marlene and Benjy sat in front of the fireplace, pouring liquid metal in cold water cheering loudly (“Yours looks like a smashed brain, Dorcas. Bad news for you N.E.W.T.s, I guess!”). Wormtail stood next to a girl from fifth grade he had followed like a gosling for weeks, shaking. The fire whiskey in his half-empty glass – apparently, he was reassuring himself pretty hard – sloshed alarmingly. She didn’t seem to notice him.

“Good luck with that,” Remus murmured under his breath. Wormy, he thought, was surely not the only one trying to get kissed at midnight. After all, there were only twenty minutes left in 1976. Prongs was probably busy being snubbed by Lily Evans for the 357th time (conservatively estimated).

Remus sighed. Hopefully, he would not spend this turn of the year listening to Prong’s whining again. To be honest: He he knew that bit by heart. It usually started with “But why doesn’t she want to kiss meeee?”, followed by “She doesn’t have a problem to hang out with _Snivellus_ , I just don’t get why…” and ended with Remus wanting to drown himself in the lake. Because it was always him who had to listen on these occasions while Wormtail was embarrassing himself and Padfoot did who-knows-what in some broom cupboard. The idea that Remus himself might snog someone was absurd, so he was an easy target for Prong’s wailing. Where _was_ Prongs after all?

Remus’s gaze skidded over the crowd. Lily’s red hair glowed in a corner. But – surprise! – she didn’t scream at Prongs. Instead, she choked on her butterbeer. Mary had apparently told her some joke, as she was also giggling.

Remus turned around until he spotted the tousled black hair he had looked for. Prongs stood in front of the portrait of Godric Gryffindor and was all smiles. His grin was directed at Padfoot who stood next to him. Instead of snogging in some broom cupboard, the boy was staring at him, Remus. The look on Padfoot’s face forced Remus‘ stomach into a somersault. He had imagined the twinkling in Padfoot‘s eyes, hadn’t he? Remus felt the heat spreading under his robes. The wolf inside was always alert, especially when Padfoot and Prongs looked like plotting one of their infamous pranks. And even more when Remus was under the impression that he himself might be the target.

He took a deep breath. Of course, this was the only reason why the heat under his robes was spreading like Fiendfyre. Nothing but nervousness due to increased prank risk. It had nothing to do with Remus catching himself staring at Padfoot during the last weeks and months again and again. Padfoot’s hair, falling softly over his face like a curtain every time he leaned forward. His long, slender fingers, when they gripped his wand firmly – usually to hex someone. Or his bum, when… Remus turned away abruptly. Nope, this was not a trail of thoughts he would follow. This was not how you thought of your friends of many years. This was not how you thought of _other boys_ at all.

One more drink, this was what he needed right now. A nice, cold butterbeer, to calm his nerves. It must be the firewhiskey, smuggled into the school by Padfoot and Prongs earlier that day, that meddled with his thoughts. Yep, that was it. No doubt.

Remus made the bottle cap fly with a snap of his wand. The cold glass felt calming in his hand, made the heat go away. Thus equipped, he strolled over to Dorcas and the others, to join their game.

„It’s like muggle divination,“ Benjy explained to him. “You melt the lead on this spoon here and dump it into the water. The shriveled lump tells us what awaits you in 1977.”

Marlene laughed and handed him a spoon with a small lump of lead. “Dorcas loses her mind, so you don’t need to be afraid – the worst prediction is already made,” she grinned.

„Oh, shut up, will you?” Dorcas replied. The blue flames flickering from her wand melted Remus’ metal. “You just want to boast about your lead thingy looking like a unicorn. _I_ think, this just says that you’ll stay a virgin in 1977.” She stuck out her tongue at her best friend.

With an indignant „Whoah!“ Marlene jumped up, but Remus interrupted their quarrel, dumping his lead in the water. It hissed and bubbled and when the steam was gone, all four of them leaned forward.

“Well?” Benjy prodded him with an elbow. “Get it, will you!”

“Wingardium leviosa,” Remus whispered and the silvery lump rose from the water. It was roughly triangular and… Remus swallowed hard.

“Aaaah, the grim!” Marlene screeched. “Maybe Dorcas’ prediction isn’t the worst after all!”

“Looks like poor Remus will go to the dogs,” Dorcas said sympathetically and wrapped her arm around Remus’ shoulders. From the look on their faces, he could tell that his own face had went white – for the thing turning in front of him, was the head of a wolf. A fucking long muzzled wolf head with pointed ears. Damned muggle divination.

“But on the other hand, a nice dog might be just the right thing for you, Remus. I absolutely want more animals when I’m done with Hogwarts,” Marlene babbled.

“Yeah, a dog for Remus, that would be great.” Padfoot’s voice came from right behind Remus’ shoulder. “A big, black one maybe.” He pushed himself between Dorcas and Remus and his eyes were twinkling again, throwing Remus’ stomach in turmoil once again. 

“Come with me, Remus,” Padfoot demanded. “We want to drink to the new year with you!” With these words, he pulled Remus through the room, making a detour for a new bottle of fire whiskey, to the portrait of Godric Gryffindor. Where Prongs stood no more.

“Merlin, he tries again,” Padfoot mumbled, glancing over his shoulder. “Well, if he wants to start the new year with a slap round the face…”

Now, Remus spotted Prongs, too. He trudged trough the room determinedly. Well, there was no doubt how Remus would spend the first hours of 1977 - listening to Prong’s whining.

“But Wormy’s lucky, eh?“ Padfoot added, pointing at Wormtail who had clasped the fifth-year in his arms and…

“Ugh, it looks like he eats her face,” Padfoot added with a grimace. Of course, with his numerous conquests, he had to know how to kiss better than Wormtail. And even Wormtail had more experience than Remus…

Around them, the other Gryffindors started the countdown. “10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – …”

Sirius took a huge swig out of his bootle of fire whiskey. Remus tried not to notice the way his neck bent and his adam’s apple hopped (“That’s just the wolf,” Remus thought, “it thinks necks are way to interesting.”).

“3 – 2 – 1 – …”

“Happy new year, Moony,” spluttered Padfoot, suddenly standing right in front of Remus. His grey eyes were so close that Remus could see his own face reflected in them, his eyes wide open.

And then Padfoot’s lips were on his own, damp from the fire whiskey, firm and so, so warm. Padfoot’s hands in his hair, on his shoulder.

Remus froze. Then, he gasped for air, breaking away, taking a big step backwards. “What…?” he stammered. “How dare you…?”

He turned and fled, pushing through the cheering Gryffindors. Their yells were nothing but white noise in his ears. That’s what Padfoot and Prongs had been up to. That’s what their grins had been about. What an elaborate prank to expose him and his stupid feelings.

So Padfoot had noticed what Remus had hoped to be inconspicuous glances. And lingering touches. Remus groaned and slammed the door to their dorm room shut. With his face downward, he threw himself into his bed. A jolt of his wand closed the curtains around him.

Merlin, all of his fellow Gryffindors had seen how Padfoot had kissed him, and how he, Remus, had almost kissed Padfoot back. Shame, hotter than fire whiskey, pulsed through him as he thought of Padfoot’s lips. Of the way they had touched his own. How heart had stopped for a second. Of the fact that this kiss was everything he had wished for for all this time.

How dared Padfoot to display this fantasy Remus had buried so deep inside, in front of everyone, to make fun of him like that?

The wolf inside Remus threw his head back and howled, the boy clenched his hands around his pillow. He could never go back to the common room. Or to class. He would just move into the Shrieking Shack and never ever show himself again…

“Moony?” The voice was soft, very different to Padfoot’s usual tone. The footsteps moving towards Remus’ bed were slow and hesitant as if Padfoot was approaching a wild animal.

“Fuck off,” whispered Remus.

„Moony, I...“

The footsteps had stopped right in front of Remus’s curtains. The wolf wanted to burst out, to rip apart the curtains and Padfoot in one go.

“ _Fuck off!_ ” Remus repeated, louder this time. For fuck’s sake, he could hear the tears in his voice.

“Moony, … I’m sorry.” Padfoot hardly ever said these words. Right now, he sounded as if he meant them. “I’m really, really sorry. I didn’t think… I didn’t want to…”

“Didn’t want to kiss me?” Remus laughed bitterly. “Well, I’m sorry to tell you, but you fucked this up.”

„No! No, I wanted… I wanted to kiss you, Moony,” Padfoot answered hastily, just in front of the curtains.

“Ah. Fun idea of Prongs and your’s,” Remus snorted. “What the fuck was that about?” He didn’t leave Padfoot any time to answer. “No, you know what, don’t tell me. Just go. Go away and leave me alone. You can laugh with Prongs at me.”

“But… didn’t you want to kiss me?” Padfoot’s voice sounded honestly puzzled. “I thought… I asked Prongs and he, too, said…”

“That it would be a giant joke to ridicule me in front of everyone?” Remus interrupted with his heartbeat pounding in his head. “Very funny indeed.”

“No, I…”

Remus couldn’t bare listening to him. Suddenly, he sat upright on his heels, shivering with anger. “Okay, I wanted to kiss you. For weeks,” he shouted. “But I didn’t want you to know and I definitely didn’t want you to… to make fun of it.”

“I did not make fun of it, Moony,” Padfoot said in front of the curtains, very soft, hardly audible. “And it was not a joke. Moony, I want to kiss you since I’m twelve, okay? I never dared to do it, because I thought… I thought you’d hit me, actually. But Prongs… Prongs told me tonight that I should just try. He said you had looked at me like…” The words tumbled from Padfoot’s mouth so fast, Remus had a hard time understanding them.

„W-what?“ Padfoot wanted to _kiss_ him? Since he was _twelve_? Padfoot wanted to kiss _him_ since he was twelve? Remus stared at the curtains. The red velvet seemed black in the darkness of the dorm. With shaking hands, he pushed the fabric aside.

Padfoot stood in front of him, frowning, his lips pressed together. His dark hair was much untidier than usual. „It was probably wrong to kiss you, Moony,“ he said, his voice trembling. “But it was not a joke. You are… you are the one person I want to kiss at New Year’s Eve. And every other evening. And in the morning. And... well, fuck, in between, too. I thought, you knew.“

„What?“ Remus asked again. „That’s just bullshit. Padfoot, we are boys. Boys like girls. _You_ like girls. I know that you kissed Dorcas and...“

Padfoot shook his head. „That was just… Forget Dorcas.” He took another step towards Remus and his knees hit the bed frames. “I like you, Moony.“

Remus still sat there stiffly. He waited for this weird dream to end, to wake up, for Padfoot to finally start laughing, for… something to make sense again. “I like you,” Padfoot’s voice echoed in his head.

“Moony… I’m sorry that I kissed you like that. But… may I do it again?”

Remus blinked. “A-again?“

Sirius nodded urgently. „Yes. I want to kiss you again, Moony. May I?” His voice was rough; Remus saw Padfoot’s fingers tremble. These fingers, that usually know what to do, tugged at Padfoot’s robes nervously.

“Ngh…,” said Remus. His vocal chords didn’t obey him anymore. He cleared his throat and also his mind of any doubts. “Yes,” he croaked. “Yes.”

And Padfoot scrambled onto Remus’ bed. The mattress creaked when he crawled towards Remus, his eyes wide, biting his lower lip. He paused in front of Remus, his left knee bumping into Remus’, took a deep, quavering breath and leaned forward.

„Since I am twelve, since I am twelve, since I am twelve,” it echoed in Remus’ head when their lips met. Padfoot still tasted like fire whiskey. But the heat soaring through Remus had nothing to do with alcohol – and everything with these grey eyes right in front of his face and the dark hair under his hands and the long fingers at his jaw.

“Happy new year,“ Padfoot whispered and kissed him again.

**Author's Note:**

> Have a great start to the new year and please ask before you kiss unsuspecting people. <3


End file.
